“Timbuktu has often been invoked as a symbol of the most distant place on Earth, as a mysterious and exotic, but unreachable, attraction. Yet, it is a real city with a history.” update only three hours after putting this up news is in that the Ahmad Baba library has been burned down http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2013/jan/28/ahmed-baba-library-torched-islamist-pictures ...